440 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



range about, following the upward course of the rivers; 

 while others, especially those which nest in Southern Europe, 

 extend their journeys to Asia Minor and Egypt, and there 

 pass the winter. Their autumn migrations are quite irre- 

 gular, for they are not true birds of passage, and seek no 

 milder climate, but, like all the eagles, travel about in search 

 of hunting-grounds. One day they spend in northerly, 

 another in more southerly districts, just as their hunting 

 necessitates ; and this is the reason why we find the Sea-Eagle 

 in all parts of Central Europe, even more frequently than the 

 " Stein " Eagle. Although the latter nests in the heart of 

 our continent, in the Swiss Alps, Spain, the Pyrenees, and so 

 many of the extensive forests of Europe, still the Sea-Eagle, 

 which sets up its abode further from us, is a much commoner 

 bird, for its numbers are far greater. The number of eggs 

 which it lays is also almost invariably larger, for a nest of the 

 " Stein " Eagle is rarely tenanted by more than one young 

 bird ; but it is not uncommon to see three Sea-Eaglets in a 

 single eyrie. Fish being the principal food of the Sea-Eagle, 

 it is naturally in a position to bring up its young much more 

 easily, and its cunning wary habits also enable it to avoid 

 more dangers than the dashing " Stein " Eagle. Seldom are 

 more than two, at most three, of the latter birds seen at the 

 same moment, while on the northern coasts of Europe, as 

 well as at their breeding-places in Southern Hungary, the 

 former may be met with in companies of seven or eight, or 

 even more. In all well- watered localities, where excessive 

 cultivation does not make its free robber-life impossible, it is a 

 winter resident ; but there are certain districts which, by 

 reason of their special qualifications, yearly harbour great 

 numbers of these birds. There they pass a shorter or longer 

 time, and are always replaced by others. The auen of the 

 Danube, close to Vienna, are, for example, one of their 

 favourite winter resorts, and in former times especially, when 



